n order to meet heiress Mary Vernon, playboy Larry Sturgis feigns injury after a fall in a steeplechase race. As hoped, Mary falls in love with Larry and accepts his proposal of marriage. On the eve of their wedding, Larry takes Mary into the back room of a New York restaurant to play roulette. Larry gets drunk and abusive, and the casino owner, Brandon, asks him to leave. Later, Inspector Ned Gunby asks Brandon for help in finding a thief who killed a bank messenger in a robbery. The only clues the police have are a roulette system found in the killer’s room, which involves the numbers 7, 14, 20 and 28, and the serial numbers on the bills that were stolen. When Brandon sees the system being played in his casino, he telephones the police just as Larry comes in for a check for his winnings. Brandon is shot, and when people enter the office, they see Larry holding the gun and standing over the body. After he is sentenced to ten years for manslaughter, Larry and fellow prisoner Butch Meeker escape from the train that is carrying them to the penitentiary. Through some clever manipulations, Larry convinces the police he is dead, then goes to Monte Carlo in search of the killer. Inspector Gunby, meanwhile, finds the roulette wheel operator from Brandon’s casino, who identifies the gamblers who were playing the system numbers on the night of the murder as Jim Daggett and Blondie Roberts. In Monte Carlo, Larry is befriended by Madelon, a young French woman, and her uncle. As Madelon helps to find the killer, she falls in love with Larry, but realizes that he is still in love with Mary. Eventually, Larry is spotted in a casino by Gunby and Mary, and he runs in panic. Gunby, shot as he tries to catch Larry, asks Mary to bring Larry to him. In the hospital, Gunby, who is convinced of Larry’s innocence, gives him a warrant to arrest Daggett. Larry is duped by Daggett, however, and arrests the wrong man. When Madelon spots Daggett’s system being used in the casino, she notifies Larry, who arrests Daggett and Blondie. After Larry learns that Mary had been trying to help him from the start, he reunites with her and plans a honeymoon in Monte Carlo. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch Monte Carlo Nights (1934)
